v PENOBSCOT WOODLANDS YIELD ANNUAL CUTS 

Two small woodlands, put under management at the 

Penobscot Experimental Forest in the early 19501s, have 

yielded continuous annual cuts. The two woodlands, in the 

spruce-fir type, were selected to be representative of small 

forest properties in that region. 

One, a moderately stocked woodland of 47 acres (Compartment 2) has been given light improvement cuts annually 

since 1951. The first three cuts brought gross incomes of 

$624, $192, and $295. The other, a well-stocked woodland of 

55 acres (Compartment 7), yielded $557, $183, and $528 from 

cuts made in 1952-54. 

These early cuttings were described in Forest Research Notes 21 (1953) and 61 (1956). This report summarizes 

results of the subsequent cuttings. 

Compartment 2 

The fourth cutting, made in 1954, removed 5-3/4 cords 

of peeled aspen (popple) and red maple pulpwood. The work 

was done by a local resident who contracted to put the wood 

at roadside. 

The fifth cutting removed 26 cords of pulpwood; about 

5 cords of this was rough wood in balsam fir trees blown 

down in the hurricane September 11, 1954. The remainder was 

peeled wood from poorly formed red maple, aspen, and lowvigor balsam fir. The maple and aspen trees were girdled at 

the base and brush-treated with sodium arsenite in June 1954 

for chemical debarking. 

The sixth cutting removed 17 cords of pulpwood, 48 

cedar posts, and 1,250 board-feet of sawlogs. Poorly formed 

red maple, mature aspen and cedar, and blister-rust-infected 

white pine were cut. The cut was made during the winter by 

contractors. All wood was sold in rough form except the 

winter-cut aspen, which was peeled in the spring. 

Compartment 7 

On Compartment 7, the fourth cut (1955) took 55% 

cords of hemlock, redmaple, aspen, spruce, and fir pulpwood. 

All trees except balsam fir were girdled at the base and 

brush-treated with sodium arsenite in June 1954 for chemical 

debarking. The fifth cut on this woodlot removed 54% cords 

of rough pulpwood, 136 posts, and nearly 7,500 board-feet of 

sawlogs, Except for some good hemlock taken to thin out 

dense clumps, only the poor trees were cut. The work was 

done by contractors on a cord basis. 
Methods & Results 

One man did the felling with a chain saw during the 

fourth cut on Compartment 2. The other cuttings were made 

by 2- or 3-man crews using 1-man chain saws. The felled 

trees were skidded in tree or log lengths to bucking yards 

where the cordwood and posts were cut up with a chain saw 

and piled at roadside. The logs were decked on skids. A 

horse was used for skidding the fourth cut in Compartment 2. 

A small gasoline crawler tractor with winch and logging 

sulky was used in the 1955 cuttings on botn compartments. 

Both horse and tractor were used to skid the 1956 cuts on 

both compartments. 

Table 1.--Outlays and returns from five improvement cuttings 

on small Penobscot woodlands 

3.0 154.5 54.0 

76.5 11.0 

horse-hours.. 

Bucking and piling ... man-hours.. 

Total outlay.......man-hours.. 

tractor-hours.. 76.5 11.0 

horse-hours.. 

RECEIPTS 

Amount sold..............cords.. 5.75 26.06 17.02 54.66 54.50 

M. bd.ftZ. 

Average roadside price 

per cord... .......... dollars.. 14.35 16.05 14.65 17.18 12.73 

per M bd.ft....... ... dollars.. 

per post ............. dollars.. 

Total sale value.......dollars.. $82.51 $418.26 $322.24 $939.06 $990.33 

'Bangor rule. 

Table 1 shows the direct outlays and receipts from 

these five cuttings, assuming the wood was sold at the roadside. If the woodland owners had used their own labor, 

tractor, horses, and chain saws, the only added cash outlays 

would have been for gasoline, oil, and repairs. These costs 

have averaged $0.90 per hour for the tractor, and $0.71 per 

cord or thousand board-feet for the chain saw used on the 

Experimental Forest. On this basis, the owners' cash income 

from their woodlands would have been $78, $331, $299, $776, 

and $937 for the five cuttings in the order listed in table 

1. 

--A. C. HART, Research Forester 

Senobscot Research Center 

Northeastern Forest Experiment Station 

Forest Service, U.S. Dept. Agriculture 

Bangor, Maine 

2 AGR ICULTURE-FOREST SERVICE- UPPER DARBY